Decolonialityand SRHR
Countdown 2030 Europe’s commitment to change
As SRHR professionals working in a European context, aspiring to take an intersectional, anti-racist and decolonial approach, we must confront the colonial history that has characterized the field of sexual and reproductive health over the past century, as well as the coloniality that persists in the health sector, and recognise how it is reproduced and maintained by the social and economic power structures we work within. Acknowledging and educating ourselves on the colonial roots of the SRHR sector is essential to better understand and address present-day social justice issues.
From subjugating and abusing colonised people, including through forced abortions, sterilizations, and unethical experiments, often in the name of population control or medical advancement, to imposing population control and coercive family planning tactics on Global Majority people in an effort to reach so-called ‘sustainable’ fertility rate targets. These are some examples of how (former) colonial powers have ruled the (reproductive) world. The International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) marked a turning point, and the attempt to shift from a population control to a rights-based paradigm, though many still question whether the ‘development’ world has truly abandoned the tendency towards ‘populationism’.
All of us in this sector have a responsibility to engage critically with the history of our field, acknowledging and owning the past and working to improve the present by fostering a movement to decolonise SRHR. This involves rethinking how we work, who we work with and fundamentally who has a seat at the table in terms of priority setting and funding opportunities.

"Fundamentally, decolonising our work is the right thing to do. It is no longer acceptable to continue with the status quo."
What we've been doing
The C2030E Consortium has established a 3-year Decoloniality Action Plan (2023-2026) which is structured around 5 pillars — Priorities, Policy positions, Power analysis, Partnerships, and People — and includes actionable measures in areas like knowledge, imagery and public communication, organizational equity, accountability, partnerships, policy and advocacy.
We have engaged in various (un)learning sessions and a self-reflection workshop led by decolonial experts, after which we co-created and embedded 10 Decolonial Guiding Principles to our work and initiated dialogue and knowledge exchange with peer organisations. We also finalised a language audit to evaluate the persistence of and work to remove any colonial discourse from our materials, in terms of language, narratives and imagery used, and created, with external support from decolonial experts, a decolonial language toolkit which will guide our advocacy and communications work in the next years.
This commitment towards being proactively anti-racist and decolonial is monitored through ongoing assessments, yearly monitoring and ad hoc evaluations, to ensure we hold ourselves accountable to sustain this journey.
The 5 pillars of our Decoloniality Action Plan
Priorities: careful thought to the most appropriate issues and agenda for European advocacy. Overwhelmingly, priorities reflect the priorities of Global Majority-based partners.
Policy positions: developed in close partnerships with Global Majority-based partners, default position is there should be alignment between positions taken by advocates in Europe and partners in Global Majority countries.
Partnerships: formal partnerships with Global Majority-based advocates that reflect the best principles of equitable partnerships, commitment to build and deepen relationships with a wide network of stakeholders in Global Majority countries.
People: diverse teams in Europe explicitly champion equity, and policy and research analysis explicit in understanding which communities are most impacted by development issues and how.
Power: willingness to integrate a power analysis in all aspects work and to highlight power dynamics with decision makers in Europe alongside an advocacy strategy to play and invest resources into dismantling these dynamics.
Our 10 decoloniality journey guiding principles
Glossary





